1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to software processing, and more particularly, to methods and systems for storing and maintaining individually generated test results.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the use of software in performing daily tasks is increasing rapidly, assessing software reliability through software testing has become an imperative stage in the software development cycle. As is well known, software testing is used to find and eliminate defects (i.e., bugs) in software, which if undetected, can cause the software to operate improperly. In general, software testing may be performed by implementing a stand-alone computer or a network of computer resources. Typically, when the stand-alone computer system is used to execute a test, the stand-alone computer system must be manually programmed so as to run a test selected by the software user. That is, to submit a new test, modify or terminate an existing test, obtain the status of the tests currently running, view or analyze test results, the user must be able to physically access the computer lab and the stand-alone computer system.
Comparatively, when a network of computer resources is used, the users are responsible for manually adding and deleting the computer resources to the network, programming the master computer system and the server, initiating the running of a user-selected test, running the test on the group of dedicated computer systems coupled to the server, storing and maintaining the text or Hyper Text Markup Language (hereinafter, “HTML”) files containing the test results, viewing the test result files, and analyzing the test results. Again, to perform any of these tasks, a user must have physical access to each of the dedicated computer systems, must manually view each test result file separately so as to extract important data, and must manually review and analyze the test result files so as to arrive at the statistical data incorporating data in each and every single test result file. As a consequence, accessing, viewing, or analyzing test results is an extremely time consuming task.
In either scenario, in addition to needing access to the computer lab housing the stand-alone computer, the master computer system running the network controller, or each dedicated test machine, at any given time, only one user at a time can view or analyze any test result file. That is, only the user having access to a specific test system is capable of viewing the test result residing on that test system. In this manner, each user has access and control over the test result files residing on the respective test system, thus giving the users the opportunity to delete the residing test result file, if the user so chooses.
Additionally, in either scenario, a heavy user interface is required for initiating the software testing on the master computer, scheduling the running of the specific test on the system resources, adding and deleting of the system resources, keeping track of the system resources and their respective hardware and software configuration, and maintaining the system resources. Moreover, in either case, the software testing is performed by dedicated system resources. That is, the system resources are designed to solely be used for software testing.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need for a flexible methodology and system capable of providing faster access to test results generated by a plurality of processing resources while reducing user control over test results.